


Demon Prices

by lar_laughs



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, LiveJournal, whedonland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-03
Updated: 2010-05-03
Packaged: 2017-10-09 06:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lar_laughs/pseuds/lar_laughs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was written as a Remix of <a href="http://circury.livejournal.com/2883.html">this story</a> that was written as a challenge for whedonland (a community at livejournal).</p><p>Faith does eventually need to buy some food but shopping can be so mundane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Demon Prices

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [(no title)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/598) by circury. 



Faith never would have thought of shopping in the middle of the night if she hadn't tracked a vampire to the alley behind the large grocery store looming at the edge of town. It was odd to be this far out of Sunnydale proper, especially since most undead didn't like all the shininess and "brand new" smell of the place, but the vamp had made a bee-line down Second Avenue with a purpose that made the slayer think this was a place well-used by this and possible other vampires.

At this time of night, the store was a haunt for college students and desperate mothers. Easy pickings if one was willing to wait for just the right moment. "Never thought they'd get lazy enough to come out here," Faith muttered as the headlights from a shiny Lexus pinned her to the side of the store as she came out of the alley, her skin slick from the vampire dust. She hated these people with their plastic smiles and easily distracted attitudes. They only cared that there was something on sale inside. No one appeared to have noticed that their lives were in danger and she had saved them. She wanted to go up to the closest shopper and shake some sense into them.

"Don't you know better than to leave the safety of your house on these dark nights? Don't you know to look around to make sure that there's no one around with sharpened teeth? How are you still alive?"

But that sort of thing would get her kicked out and she might as well grab some food while she was here. Putting her knife back away and tucking the stake more securely in the waistband of her jeans, Faith took a deep breath. She would walk in, grab some random cans, pay for them and walk out. She wouldn't even really need to talk to anyone. If the cashier was one of those vapid college kids who didn't mean their greeting, she'd just glare them into silence and be on her way with tomorrow's dinner.

The bright lights were off-putting and she needed to shield her eyes at first. Since she'd never been in this large store, it took several minutes for her to figure out the layout but she eventually got away from the fresh produce (never lasted long enough for her to get her money's worth since she so often forgot to eat) and in the aisle with the food that had been canned for both convenience and longevity. A can of corn, a can of vegetable and barley soup, a can of tuna fish, a can of ravioli, a jar of pickles.

When she got to the checkstand, she was mildly disappointed to see a reasonably normal person standing there, waiting to greet her. "Did you find everything you were looking for?" the very normal looking young man asked. Faith actually looked behind her to see if there was a grandmother behind her with a cart full of groceries.

"Uh, fine," she finally stammered. She was ready to put her selections on the conveyor belt when a tricl of the light made her pause. Or maybe it wasn't a trick of the light. If she tilted her head to the left, she could see a tiny bit of horn covered by the boy's tawny hair.

"Demon," she hissed.

"Slayer." He acted like he waited on his mortal enemies all the time, that there was nothing special about her standing there with a heavy load of cans in her arms. "Can I check those out for you?"

She lifted the corner of her jacket to give him a good look at her weaponry after laying the cans down. "Just ring me up and I'll leave quietly."

"Will you?" He swept the corn across the little red light that scanned the bar code.

"What do you know about the vampire that was in the alley behind the store tonight?"

He shrugged and reached for the tuna. It took him a few seconds to find the much smaller bar code. "This is the night when they go through the old makeup and get rid of the stuff they can't get credit for. There've been a few females that lurk there to see what they can get their hands on for free."

"And they don't make trouble inside the store?"

"Not while I'm around. Do you think the owners of the store didn't soon get smart enough to hire something stronger than your normal human cashier or stockboy."

"So you admit that you're a…"

"Demon. Most of the workers tonight are. We have a few humans that aren't afraid of us and I wouldn't cross any of them in a dark alley. Does that both you, Slayer?"

She looked at the total of her selection. "I don't have a problem with you working here, Demon. What I do have a problem with is that total. You can't seriously think I'm going to let you charge me nearly double, do you?"

When he shrugged and smiled at her once more, Faith decided she'd had enough. She grabbed for her stake just as the demon's eyes turned red. "Midnight prices," he hissed.

"I don't like your new math." She threw the stake for his heart and when he was dust, she reached for the bag. Since it wasn't necessarily the store's fault for hiring someone who wasn't afraid of cheating a Slayer, she tossed a few dollars on the counter. She definitely wasn't coming back to this side of town. Let the vampires scrounge in the trash for makeup all they wanted. Any human stupid enough to get themselves taken down by those marauders deserved whatever they got. She was sticking to the little corner stores that, as a general rule, didn't hire demons.


End file.
